GFS held a social event last week - a round robin table tennis competition at The University of Queensland. Lab members were randomly put into pairs, and then battled it out for five entertaining rounds of first-to-11 table tennis. The two most successful teams from these five rounds won through to the final match. James W and Kendall started in unconvincing fashion, but gathered momentum as the rounds progressed to win straight through to the final. James A and Sarah showed flashes of brilliance, but battled for consistency, and bowed out without registering a win. April and Nicki fought hard. Luck wasn't on their side, however, finishing in fourth place. A sudden death play-off was needed
We're celebrating one year as a collaborative, diverse and supportive research group! We're looking forward to seeing how the lab grows and matures in the coming years.
It was with great excitement and humility that two Green Fire Science lab members, Bonnie Mappin and Sean Maxwell, attended the 2016 Wentworth Group Science Program last week. Created in 2001, the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists is an independent collection of eminent Australian scientists, economists and business people with interests in conserving Australia’s biodiversity and natural resources. The group has been fundamental in multiple land and water policy reforms across Australia, including contributing to the Murray Darling Basin Plan and the Regional Environmental Accounts Trial. And since 2007, the Group has run their Science Program. The Science Program intentionally brings
Modeling Reef Fish Biomass, Recovery Potential, and Management Priorities in the Western Indian Ocea
McClanahan TR, Maina JM, Graham NAJ, Jones KR (2016) Modeling Reef Fish Biomass, Recovery Potential, and Management Priorities in the Western Indian Ocean. PLoS ONE 11(5): e0154585. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0154585 Fish biomass is a primary driver of coral reef ecosystem services and has high sensitivity to human disturbances, particularly fishing. Estimates of fish biomass, their spatial distribution, and recovery potential are important for evaluating reef status and crucial for setting management targets. Here we modeled fish biomass estimates across all reefs of the western Indian Ocean using key variables that predicted the empirical data collected from 337 sites. These variables were
Testing the effectiveness of surrogate species for conservation planning in the Greater Virunga Land
Jones, K.R., Plumptre, A., Watson, J.E.M., Possingham, H.P., Ayebare, S., Rwetsiba, A.,Wanyama, F., Kujirakwinja, D. and C. J. Klein (2016). Testing the Effectiveness of Surrogate Species for Conservation Planning in the Greater Virunga Landscape, Africa. Landscape and Urban Planning, 145: 1 – 11. Given the limited funds available, spatial prioritisation is necessary to help decide when and where to undertake conservation. One method for setting local scale priorities for conservation action is the landscape species approach which aims to identify priorities based on the needs of a small number of wide ranging species with large environmental impacts. Despite being used for the past decade